


Booger Boy and the Tummy Kid

by UnapologeticallyMeatwad



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Cats, Character Study, Gen, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Khalid von Riegan, Minor Jeritza von Hrym/My Unit | Byleth, Pets, Politics, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Trans Claude von Riegan, Trans Edelgard von Hresvelg, Trans Male My Unit | Byleth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27938662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnapologeticallyMeatwad/pseuds/UnapologeticallyMeatwad
Summary: Edelgard and Bernadetta adopt two cats rescued from the ruins of Shambala at a difficult point in Edelgard's life, and they teach her that she really is capable of love.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/Bernadetta von Varley
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	Booger Boy and the Tummy Kid

**Author's Note:**

> This is a tribute to my cats. I’ve had my cats, Albus and Alan, for two and a half years now and they taught me that I am capable of love. They’re my best friends, and I wanted to do that story for Edelgard. 
> 
> I am such a cat mom, writing fanfic about my cats like this lol At the end of the fic, there will be some pictures of my boys.

“Your Former Majesty, there has been a situation,” Jeritza announces from the dead center of the courtyard, his silver cape concealing something around his chest.

At first, Former Emperor Edelgard von Hresvelg’s heart jumps to her throat, because she sent Jeritza _and_ Byleth out to destroy Shambala, and only Jeritza is standing here in the courtyard of Enbarr Palace. But by the absurd title, _Your Former Majesty_ , she knows he is being facetious about the gravity of the situation.

Her seat as Emperor is ending, well, tomorrow, and he just loves needling her over it. She approaches him calmly, Bernadetta, her girlfriend, besides her.

“Yes, Former Death Knight?” she smirks.

“Ha, good one,” he deadpans. “There was a problem at Shambala. Byleth nearly died rescuing them but…” He pulls the cape back, revealing two cats being cradled in his arm. 

One is tiny and gray, with vibrantly white skin peeking through the fur, and yellow eyes. He seems nervous. The other is much larger with white fur adorned by cow-like black spots. Three of his paws appear to have six toes each, with one paw especially tiny, its arm crooked.

Bernadetta _awwwwwws_ and then frowns. “Oh no… were they… being experimented on?”

“I’m not sure,” Jeritza frowns. “Perhaps a birth defect. The gray one has definitely been abused, he’s far too skittish to not have been.”

Edelgard nods. “Where is Byleth? I’m getting concerned now…”

“Oh, he’s fishing,” Jeritza shrugs.

“ _It’s true!_ ” Byleth’s voice echoes through the courtyard from so far away. That’s just like him.

Edelgard laughs. “So… why are you telling _me_ about this?”

“Because they are your cats now,” Jeritza says, holding his arms out as if she should just accept this and take them.

Bernadetta, of course, cries out in glee. “I—ahhhhhh yay!!!”

Edelgard is not so amused. Not out of any resentment, just…

“Are you sure?” she tries not to stutter. “I-I—” Damn, she’s stuttering anyways. “—I-I’m n-not s-sure I’m…” She clamps her jaw tight, trying to focus, and then Bernadetta takes her hand. It helps more than she can describe. “I’ve never had pets before and if these cats were abused, I don’t think I’ll be the b-best to… umm…”

“You’ll be a great, Mom, El,” Bernadetta coos.

Jeritza nods. “I also have thirty cats already. I’m at capacity.”

Edelgard blinks. “You have thirty cats.”

“Yes. All indoor.”

“How?”

“I have co-opted yet another one of my offices to include a massive dungeon below it.”

“Ah,” Edelgard tentatively takes one cat, the gray one, because he’s smaller. He immediately starts kicking and writhing. She panics and almost drops the poor boy.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Bernadetta says, either to the cat or Edelgard. “Support him by the butt like Jeritza was, or he’ll get scared.”

Edelgard slips her hand to the base of their tail and that seems to help, though his tail keeps going back and forth. Which she thinks means he’s anxious. She understands that all too well. 

Bernadetta takes the white one, who—wow—has a _huge_ butt. “What are their names?”

“Gray one is Mittens because of tiny paws,” Jeritza drawls. “White one is Gloves.”

“Gloves?” Edelgard repeats and looks to the white cat’s paws. Six toes, and they are all very big, spreading out on the paw like a four leaf clover. She nods. “Gloves. Cute. Oh-okay. Um. We’ll… we’ll do it.”

* * *

“So, are you okay?” Bernadetta asks the moment they’re in their bedroom. The cats both dive under the bed immediately, Gloves’ butt sticking high in the air for a moment before escaping. “Don’t worry, they do that. I had cats when I was a kid.”

“Okay,” Edelgard sits on her bed primly, hands together. “I’m just worried I won’t be good for them.”

“El, you’re one of the most loving and caring people I’ve ever met…” Bernadetta frowns.

Edelgard doesn’t say anything to that. Because it’ll start an argument. She grabs her forearm, itching it. “I guess I can… spend a lot of time with them?”

“Yeah, you need a vacation, you trained the new Emperor and everything. Take it easy for this week, okay?” Bernadetta kisses Edelgard gently. “I’m gonna go to the market to buy what we need, you stay here so they can get used to your scent, okay?”

“Okay.”

* * *

Edelgard lays on her bed and thinks.

There was an election. An unprecedented election. She won the war about six years ago now, and it has taken all six to create an infrastructure that could support an election. Edelgard has had lots of thoughts about stepping down, she hates leaving the work to someone else, but she knows in her vision of a better Fodlan, there should be no such thing as life long seats of power. 

Two candidates rose up, and though Edelgard had to stay out of it for the sake of democracy, she had a clear preference: Khalid. 

Yes, Khalid. Progressive Khalid, Khalid who put more thought into governing than she ever did. She, the Warmonger.

Sometimes she second guesses her alliance to him. She thinks she chooses him out of some kind of nepotism because they are friends now.

Other times she thinks it’s out of guilt. Because she spared him and not Dimitri. She still killed one of her best friends from the Academy days. 

Khalid lost the election. _Barely_ . She fought so hard for him when she could but regrettably, racism is still a huge issue in Fodlan. Khalid knew that, and decided to take on his original name instead of his whitewashed one anyways. _Racists can suck my dick, Your Majesty,_ he told Edelgard one day.

The new Emperor isn’t so bad, it’s just—eeeeeeeeeh. The past moon has kept Edelgard occupied with training. She trained the new Emperor, mentored him and showed him the ropes, while also taking the time to do something similar for Khalid. Because she just can’t let him go.Edelgard steps down _officially_

She doesn’t need to, obviously. She just wants to. She sees so much of her vision alive in his eyes. He can draft policy her imagination won’t even dare.

So she’s maybe just a little tired. 

She lays on her bed, and she hates that she starts crying. It’s been so hard lately. There was… an incident. A year ago. She was forced into the underground at age nine, and it wasn’t until age twenty eight that she really started to process her healing… and she got re-traumatized shortly after. 

She killed Thales that day at least. She killed him many times over.

Bernadetta is the one who found her. Covered in blood and grime, crouched over a carcass blasted open. 

Luck be a lady tonight, that’s the same day Edelgard realized she really is a woman. She’s been transitioning since. She’s lucky that her Fodlan is so accepting of someone like her. 

It’s not just her either. Byleth too. Oftentimes Edelgard wonders if it’s just them, or if there are more trans people.

“ _You’re just like me,_ ” Thales somehow managed to hiss even though his jaw had been broken open. “ _You hide behind faces that aren’t yours. You wage wars, you kill, you’re me, El._ ”

She agrees with him. She really does.

She feels something on her chest and almost screams, but stops when she lifts her head and sees Gloves tentatively pawing at her chest, like he’s making sure it’s stable footing for him. 

He’s kinda heavy, honestly, but very precious. His paws press on her safely and she lays back, tentatively reaching up to scratch his cheek.

He purrs.

Her eyes water. “Why do you trust me, already? Don’t you see who I really am?”

And then.

Gloves starts to explode.

* * *

His face is like—erupting. It rocks from side to side and it makes a hissing sound. Edelgard screams and runs into the hallway, of Enbarr Palace. 

“ _HELP! MY CAT IS EXPLODING!_ ”

“I’m on it!” Hubert says.

Wait, Hubert—where the fuck is—whoa holy shit. Hubert lands right in front of Edelgard, somehow having jumped from a high place. His cape flies in the air dramatically and he charges into her room, while Gloves continues to explode.

Five seconds later, Hubert returns, hands at his sides, looking awful disappointed. 

“Oh Goddess, Hubert, is he okay, I must have done something wrong, I think I broke him, I—”

Hubert holds up a finger. “El, your cat is sneezing.”

“Sn-sn-sneezing?”

“Yes.” 

Hubert holds his cape up and Edelgard notices the massive booger coming from Gloves’ tiny nose. He claws it off his face and immediately laps it up like it’s food. “Abhorrent, isn’t he?”

“Wha—” Edelgard frowns. “—sneezing, cats… sneeze… boogers?”

“Yes. You did not break your cat, I promise you.”

“Are you sure?” Edelgard asks. She really thinks she did something wrong. “I’m positive it’s my fault, it’s—”

“El. Look at me.”

She looks at him. He’s very serious. 

Suddenly Gloves charges out of the room. He stops underneath her hips, his rabbit-like feet pointed in different directions, his tail shooting straight up, his eyes wide. 

She scoops him up and cradles him as he whines, which really is very cute. “Let’s take this to my room.”

She sets Gloves down as Hubert closes the door. It’s cute how Gloves walks. He sort of hobbles. His tiny paw isn’t long enough to reach the ground so he uses it to grab onto things besides him for support. He jumps back to where he was on the bed and curls up.

Hubert snaps his fingers. Ah yes, Hubert. She looks to him. “Okay. Go.”

“You won a war, correct?”

“Yes.”

“You abolished the Crest system, you abolished inherited nobility.”

“Y-yes, but—”

“Nono, listen. Every citizen in Fodlan now has access to an education. To a doctor.”

“Okay, but—”

“Now,” Hubert grips her by the shoulder. “Look at yourself in the mirror. Tell me what you see.”

She looks into it. “I see Edelgard.” She smiles. She hated her face for so long but she’s starting to like it more.

“Not to be a Negative Nancy, but…”

“Oh,” she frowns, noticing the pink rimmed eyes and the purple streaks in her skin. “Um. I look very tired.”

“Exactly,” Hubert says. “You’re very tired and overworked. Linhardt and Hanneman are doing the procedure on you to get your Crests out—” 

Oh yeah, that’s happening too. So much is going on!

“—you just trained two people to take over the country for you, and you’re transitioning. You’re exhausted and based on all evidence prior, you are a good person who deserves to take a break. Please. It pains me to see you be so hard on yourself.”

She sits down besides Gloves. “Okay. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, El, it’s fine,” he almost pleads.

Edelgard grins. It’s been such an emotional day already, she’s worn out. She looks hard at Hubert, and notices that he too has a pale complexion and purple streaks… “You know Hubert…”

“Oh don’t start with me…”

“Everything you just said—”

“—applies to me too, I know.”

She grins like Ferdinand does when he finally bests Edelgard at something, no matter how obscure. “You came from above my room, it’s a small hallway.”

“Edelgard, don’t think about it too hard—”

“You’re the gargoyle that watches over my room, aren’t you?”

Hubert flushes and shakes his head. “Dammit.”

“I knew it!” she accidentally cries out. “I knew it, I knew that thing wasn’t always there. You play it so well though.”

“I know, I’m a great gargoyle,” Hubert says smugly. “Alright, if you can promise me to trust yourself more and take it easy, I—I can too.”

“It’s a deal.”

* * *

Though Edelgard promised to do nothing Imperial this week, she still visits the new guy. Because like, she’s not technically working by just talking to him, right? Definitely. Definitely okay.

The Emperor is very tall, so the cramped office space that worked for tiny Edelgard is not to his liking. She can tell he’s frustrated the moment she steps in. He looks to her. “Hello, Edelgard, how are—ew.”

Edelgard blinks. “What?”

“Your gown, ew.”

She raises an eyebrow and looks down, and of course, it’s matted in white cat hairs from Gloves, as well as one dried booger that she didn’t notice until now. “Ah, I just adopted two cats you see.”

“Hmph,” he dryly observes. “I suppose you need something to do now. Perhaps it’ll take you away from giving so much support to my opponent, hm? I already won, Edelgard.”

Edelgard frowns. “What I elect to do with my own time is none of your business, uh, Your Majesty.”

“There it is, there’s the title you’ve been forgetting to say,” he smirks.

“You should be referring to me as Your Majesty as well if titles matter so much,” Edelgard clicks her tongue, and immediately regrets it. There is no reason to agitate this situation further. “I’ve come to see how you’re doing and if you need anything.”

“Ah, mostly going through the budget,” the Emperor says. “I must say, we’re far poorer than I imagined. Especially as the victors of war. Why, in my territory at least, we managed to make some profit from—” He pauses and feigns a cough. “—anyways, I only ask that you be more discreet in your dealings with the Almyran. I’m interested in this expanded healthcare plan you drew up and I am going to need your support to get this through, I think.”

Edelgard nods. Much as she dislikes this man, this former _noble_ , he agrees with her on everything he needs to to create a better Fodlan. “ _The Almyran_ , as you always call him, his name is Khalid, drafted that plan with me, and most of the good ideas are his. He can help us there too. Like it or not he’s very popular. I think he should be one of your ministers, but I know you’d rather him be in some local office, far away from you.”

The Emperor snorts. “His ideas are ridiculous, and worst of all, _paranoid_. He’s talking about a Fodlan that is a millennium from now. Right now, we don’t have a problem with doctors scaling up the prices for the medicines we have, I doubt that will even happen at all, and furthermore—”

He sighs.

The Emperor pushes his thin lips together. “—I apologize, I’m being too aggressive. I’m far more used to the system where I’m always unchallenged out of birthright, this has been quite uncomfortable for me. I don’t like that I barely won the election, nearly half the people want someone else to be Emperor and—”

“I understand,” Edelgard says in the blink of an eye. “My approval ratings were lower than yours when I really took Office. Rest assured. The critique made against you is in good faith. Listen to the people and learn. I had to do the same. If so many in Fodlan truly follow Khalid’s politics, then it means the people are thinking. The revolution is working.”

The Emperor nods. “So it is.”

She smiles faintly and brings her hands together. “You need something to drink, don’t you? Coffee? Tea?”

“Ah, well, you know… heh, you needn’t worry about such things.”

“I insist,” Edelgard always held a policy as Emperor that no one would serve on her hand and foot. Tempting as it was, as services such as that had been offered to her so frequently, she found it kept her grounded to not have servants and assistants. Which lead to a very tired Emperor who did not take care of herself. “You like coffee don’t you?”

“I do.”

“It shall be done.”

She turns to leave.

“One more thing, Edelgard,” The Emperor says and she freezes in place. “I wanted to say—I never expected you to be like this.”

She arches an eyebrow. “Of what do you mean?”

“You’re kind,” he muses. “They always told me the Emperor of Adrestia was cold hearted.”

Edelgard frowns. She doesn’t affirm that _she is as cold as they say,_ but she imagines Dimitri’s face before she swung Aymr down on his neck. She’ll never forget that.

“Your empathy knows no bounds,” the Emperor explains warmly. “Though my gut instinct is to dislike you, I’d like for us to remain close. I’ve a lot to learn from you.”

It’s hard for her to smile, but she does. She does this for her country. Lying that is. Saying she is kind and empathetic.

“I’ll help you then.”

* * *

It becomes apparent early in that Gloves is very emotionally aware and so friendly. He’s always sniffing things and walking around. He especially loves Edelgard, and in that first week of caring for the boys, he gets a lot of boogers on her. Her hearing starts to develop so that the moment she hears a sneeze, she rushes to him to wipe away his icky boogies.

He’s the first one to be let out of the bedroom. They don’t let the cats roam because that could be dangerous, but Gloves, with supervision, can handle exploring the palace. Mittens however is rarely seen and mostly stays under the bed. Unless it’s time for food, or to poop. 

He’s quite stealthy. She only ever notices him when he’s already at his destination, and when she sees him and he notices, he yelps and runs back under the bed. Poor baby. She also notices that when he walks about, he tends to crouch down low and make himself small. 

His tiny elbows pop up like hunches and oof, he must be so afraid of these new things. She knows the perpetrators of the abuse that made him like this are dead, but she’d kill them again if she could.

She’s also pretty sure he comes out extensively at nighttime. 

It’s hard to tell, because he’s gray and blends in, but Edelgard is _positive_ she sees his silhouette pushing through the room in the early, early morning. Probably it’s because it’s when he feels safest to explore. She’s excited for the day he comes out when he’s actually supposed to be awake. She really understands his anxiety. 

(She’d check to make sure she’s right about him exploring late at night, but she’s always intertwined with Bernadetta in bed and it would be rude to unhook to find her cat, who she knows will run away on sight.)

* * *

Edelgard listens to Khalid calmly as they walk together alongside the canals of Enbarr. She stays tightly wrapped in her traveling cloak, which makes her somewhat sad. Through treatment on her Crests, she awoke the other morning with one of her white hairs having turned brown. She wants to show it off, but not where she can so easily be recognized as her white hair is sort of a trademark around here.

“—anyways, it’d be easier if Ignatz just came in and talked it over with Ferdinand, but we’ve got enough leads in the Alliance that we can track down the nobles who did this shit in Adrestia.”

Edelgard nods, stowing that further back in her mind. This is the human trafficking problem that is still coming out of Almyra. So fucked up, and it’s happening under her nose. It’s good they are homing in on who has organized this.

“Khalid,” Edelgard says, and doesn’t mean for it to sound so emotional. “I just wanted to say… I’m happy you’re alive.”

Khalid pauses and looks to her, a little stricken, and sighs. “Yeah. I miss him too. Sometimes El, I think I should have gone to him after you spared me. Talked him out of it. But I ran like a coward and—”

“—don’t say that,” Edelgard almost moves to embrace him, but that’d be inappropriate.

“Hey, I get _one_ , okay?” Khalid smirks. “I get to call myself a coward without your protests, as you can call yourself an ice queen without me fighting you on it.”

Ah yes, the unspoken rules of their friendship, now given voice.

“Well, it does no good to have regrets,” Edelgard says softly.

“You were just regretting, though,” Khalid challenges. “C’mon. What’s done is done. He’s dead, and Fodlan really is on the up and up. I’m sad I lost, but with the votes I got? I got a good chance in the future.”

Edelgard smiles softly, and continues their walk. She can’t help but let her eyes linger on the parts of Enbarr that are still in ruins. Eleven years have passed since the war started, and even Enbarr, the capital of the quote-unquote winner, still bleeds.

She knows it’s far worse in Fhirdiad, and even worse in villages scattered throughout the country. Out there, it’s much less of structural damage to the buildings, but to the people. Leaders all over died in the war, and villages are still fighting to regain their footing having lost those leaders. 

She blames herself, of course. “I wish I knew I had longer to live, Khalid. I really thought…”

“Lysithea says the same thing,” Khalid sighs. “You’d have made different decisions back then if you knew.”

She imagines the war that may never have happened.

Mostly, she thinks of her transition. She feels so selfish making it about her transition but like… she _knew_. It came to her while she was at school, that she was really a girl and not a boy. But she figured transitioning would only weaken her as a leader to her people, and that she should hold it off. 

Then she forgot.

“I suppose… it doesn’t matter really, I am who I am now,” she broods.

“Exactly, El,” Khalid says and looks back at her seriously, seating himself on the stone ridge overlooking the canal, and pats down the spot besides him. “I know tomorrow you’ll flip flop and be sad again so hear me out. Okay?”

“Okay,” she takes a seat, looking at him in wonder.

“See, when I was a kid… well, I was raised up as a girl, El.”

Edelgard freezes, and tries to stow away her bad thoughts so she can really focus in on Khalid. 

“I had a different name. I hated that name, it’s blurry to me now but… so I did what you expected. Classic Khalid, I did a long con. I slashed my hair off, changed my clothes, and just started calling myself Khalid. I pretended I was never anybody else and some people, like fucking Nader man, they fell for it. They thought they made a mistake remembering me as a girl. Other people, like Judith, saw through it but didn’t say anything.

Then I moved to Fodlan, and someone suggested that I change my name to Claude for my own safety. And that’s when I knew I had made it. So unlike you, I transitioned early. Marianne, Lysithea, they were the ones at Garreg Mach who helped me do it physically with magic but… ya know. I know not everyone has it so easy, but I try not to think about what could have been because it doesn’t matter anymore. Does that make sense?”

Edelgard nods, though she’s still processing it. She didn’t know… that makes three of them. Her, Byleth, and Khalid. All born in bodies they didn’t like. At first she called it a fluke, she said her and Byleth are just weird and now it’s obvious to her that so many children must be like this. 

She wants to protect them. She understands what Khalid is trying to do with his healthcare pushes, and smiles.

“Well, your best friend isn’t a former time traveler,” Edelgard smirks. “Maybe if they were, you’d have it on your mind more ofte—”

“Wait,” Khalid stares right at her. “The fuck? Edelgard, you don’t just _say that_ and—fuck me, Hubert is a time—wait! NO! It’s Byleth, isn’t it?! It’s totally Byleth, I fucking knew it!”

Edelgard laughs. “Yes, he lost the power after we killed Rhea unfortunately. Apparently, he used it to protect us during the war. Very typical of him to have such a strength and not tell us until years later.”

“Yeah, that’s ridiculous,” Khalid looks out at the waters. “I gotta play him in chess again. Bastard. I bet when we went toe to toe in Derdriu, Byleth was using his time travel skills like clockwork. Fucking cheater. I’m getting him for that one. But I’m kidding—”

“—I know you’re kidding,” she falls into his side and damn, she is so grateful he’s alive.

He continues anyways, “—because if I didn’t lose, we wouldn’t have this unified country, I bet. We wouldn’t have a chance at really winning.”

It still feels so weird to her for him to say that. For him to ascertain that it’s important she lived. That she did this. 

She still thinks she just got lucky: Ice Queens like her don’t make other people happy.

* * *

Later, Bernadetta shows Edelgard how to play with the cats, which is with a toy that’s basically a stripped down fishing pole. She waves the rod around, and the silly feathery thing at the end of the line makes noises that excite cats.

Gloves struggles with playing sometimes because of his bad health and crippled paw, but he definitely has fun. He shouts at the toy a lot.

One time when Edelgard is playing with Gloves, there’s a loud thumping against the floor and it’s Mittens who charges out from under the bed and dive tackles the toy, missing by a lot. He hits the floor and saunters off quickly, as if he didn’t just fuck that up, and hides under the bed, charging out again.

Edelgard gets more aggressive now, moving the rod around quickly. Turns out Mittens plays _hard_. He’s super fast, and between each charge, he hides under objects to stealth his way up to the feathers. It’s very cute, and he trills constantly.

This is around the time Edelgard starts to learn to differentiate the cats’ different kind of meows. When Glove is needy for attention, he goes _rrrrrr-OW_ ! When he is hungry, his meows rasp and barely make a sound. When he plays, he goes _aeeeow_!

Mittens’ attention call is _nyeeeh_ in a tiny, tiny voice. His hunger call is similar, but he will only shout for food if Gloves starts the shouting. When he plays, he trills. Edelgard likes to call it his silly shout.

One afternoon, Edelgard comes home from a walk where she pointedly tries to avoid wandering deeper into the palace to see how the new Emperor is doing, and finds the boys fighting. She almost screams, but keeps quiet so as not to scare them.

Mittens and Gloves are at war, pawing each other in the face. Though Mittens is much smaller than Gloves, he’s stronger and flips Gloves over. Gloves rocks to-and-fo on his big butt, paws splayed open, his eyes wide and shining as Mittens goes for the kill, biting him in the neck. 

They stand still, Gloves tail occasionally making rapid swats at the ground.

Then Mittens releases his hold, and sits near Gloves, looking around the room seriously. (Whenever Mittens is having fun, he gets very serious and surly, as if he’s paying by the hour and needs the bang for his buck.)

Not sure what to do, Edelgard leaves her room immediately and hunts Bernie down. She’s sewing something together near one of the gardens. 

“Mittens and Gloves are fighting,” Edelgard says seriously.

Bernie looks up from the tapestry she’s making. “Oh really? Cute!”

“Cute?” Edelgard arcs an eyebrow, and sits on the cobblestone besides her. “I fear I have made them aggressive towards each other. I’m sorry, Bernie.”

Bernie just raises an eyebrow. “Oh, um, so, mosta the time they’re fighting, it’s just play. Maybe we should let Mittens out more, he’s probably getting pent up.”

Edelgard considers that. For a small cat, he does have a lot of energy. “You’re sure? Maybe you should come back with me, they’re probably still going at it.”

Bernie shakes her head and puts a hand on Edelgard’s shoulder assuringly. “Edelgard, I promise you they aren’t actually fighting.”

Edelgard really doesn’t want to accept this, but Bernie is the expert here, so she just sighs and lets her feet dangle. “Very well. I will not intervene and play with them harder tonight.”

“So serious,” Bernie giggles.

Edelgard smirks, finally feeling a little self-aware. “Mittens is rubbing off at me. Have you seen the way he stares at his food?”

Bernie looks away, and then looks back with dark eyes and a pinched frown. “ _Nyeeeh_ ,” she purrs in her tiniest of voices.

Edelgard giggles, and tries her mighty imitation of Gloves: “ _Rrraaaa-OW!_ ”

* * *

There’s a knock on the door. Edelgard looks to Gloves, who is once again on her chest, and scratches his chin. “Hey, give me a sec, I’ll be back.” She gets up and he falls off, staring at her, looking so betrayed. She chuckles and opens the door and it’s—

—ah, it’s Byleth. 

“Not gonna lie,” Byleth says awkwardly. “I really want to pet your cats.”

It’s always awkward with Byleth. Edelgard really thinks she messed it up with him. She… fell in love with him during school, and then he died. For five years. She fell more in love with him as time went on and the expectation was just impossible.

She asked him if he was interested after the war and… well…

It’s for the best. Neither of them were out yet, and it turns out Byleth is gay. 

“I like your haircut,” Edelgard observes as Byleth sits besides Gloves. “He likes the shoulders, and the butt.”

Byleth nods, and pets away. His hair has been cut into a bob with a patch shaved right off the right side. It looks really badass. He has similar issues to her, where his body has already developed past points of no return. His breasts for instance are kind of a problem, similar to Edelgard’s broad shoulders.

He takes it all in good humor though. Especially in his name: Byleth.

That was his old name too. Edelgard got rid of hers.

When she asked about it, he told her the truth: _Yeah, so I have a brother also named Byleth. Honestly, super weird guy. But Dad named us both Byleth because, uh, yeah, I don’t know. And it feels kind of wrong to rename myself when the names are so dumb._

Edelgard and Byleth are best friends. She just doesn’t understand why.

She got over him at least. Bernadetta is wonderful. 

“You can sit with me, you know,” Byleth observes. 

Edelgard cautiously comes over and sits besides him. “That’s Gloves. Mittens is still shy, he only comes out at night.”

“Figures,” Byleth says. “Gloves clearly loves you a lot.”

“Really?” Edelgard blinks. “How can you tell?”

Byleth gestures at the dirty blouse Edelgard left on her bed once, which Gloves has now taken ownership of. “You see how his paw is latched onto your blouse?”

“Yes, he gets upset if I move it.”

“That blouse has your scent on it, it makes him feel safe because he’s safe around you,” Byleth smiles. 

Edelgard speaks without thinking. “It’s dangerous to love someone so soon…”

Byleth’s eyes shine and he flashes a sympathetic look. “You’re so hard on yourself… I understand though, I didn’t really understand why you took to me so soon at school, considering my past.”

As the Ashen Demon.

She smiles. “Well, you’re too hard on _your_ self. You need to forgive yourself for that stuff.”

He nods. She knows it’s because he already has forgiven himself; he would just feel guilty pointing that out.

“You look really cute today, by the way,” Byleth says, eyes fixated on Gloves’ pink lips shining as he gets so excited at the pats. “Sometimes, I just want to come here to look at you because it makes me feel so proud of who you’re becoming.”

Edelgard smiles and leans in, slinging her arms around Byleth’s thin shoulders, pulling him in tight. “I love you. Not like that, you know, I just…”

“I know, you don’t have to keep saying it,” he chuckles. 

“...thanks.”

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Edelgard feels horrible some nights that she can’t sleep. She’s with Bernie, Bernie loves her, she loves Bernie, and they’re both safe together. They hold each other so tightly and she still feels anxiety, she still has nightmares. It’s not fair to Bernadetta.

She snuggles closer to Bernadetta, both of them in flannel pajamas. It’s been two hours. Two hours of her mind just moving rapid fire on things she could do tomorrow to help the new Emperor. But most of the thoughts are the same. She’s cycling.

Eventually she resigns herself to just laying against the pillow and staring at Bernadetta’s peaceful face. It’s still so weird to her that Bernadetta is just a centimeter or so taller than her. How regressive. Bernie has been the taller one for a long time now. 

Her breathing is soft and she smiles in her sleep nowadays. That makes Edelgard happy. She really tries to just focus on Bernadetta but thoughts keep creeping.

She remembers the bloodshed, she remembers walking through villages that were burnt to the ground, the corpses of her people strewn about everywhere. Seiros only killed them to hurt Edelgard. 

_Why are you not Emperor?_ she thinks. _Are you a coward? You did all of this so what, you could take it easy? Disgusting._

She cries. Sniffling like a child in Bernie’s arms and this time she needs to slip away. She feels a crying fit coming on and if she allows it—Bernadetta will surely wake up and that’s not fair. Very delicately, she leaves Bernie’s arms and sits on the side of the bed. Wiping a sleeve across her face she sees something, and in her fragile state, it scares her.

Scares her so much she doesn’t notice Bernie’s eyes open.

Oh, oh… it’s just Mittens. Inspecting once again.

He looks to her and stays still. Edelgard stares back, and blinks slowly. Bernadetta told her to try this, so she blinks _very_ slowly. And Mittens…

...he blinks back. Very slowly. This continues for some time until Mittens seems to get a little sleepy. Edelgard points her finger out, and Mittens’ eyes get so wide. He walks up to her finger and sniffs it aggressively, nostrils flaring. 

And then he flops over. 

He’s never flopped over for her. 

She smiles and gets onto her knees, petting him so gently. He starts purring immediately. 

Oh wow, she pets. And pets. And pets.

Shoulders aren’t his best. He definitely loves the chin, not the butt and then…

He rolls onto his back and shows her his belly. While Edelgard herself would not appreciate a belly rub, she chances it. She rubs the belly and his purrs only get harder. He rolls about, stretching, and purring. 

He really likes belly rubs, she thinks. She runs her hand from his belly to his chin over and over and over again.

And the more and more she rubs his belly, the more she finds herself laying down with him. At one point, her cheeks is right besides his face, and his yellow eyes fall on her. It’s so quiet, and she can’t help but whisper it to him.

“ _When I was a little girl, I got hurt. I got hurt really badly. It made me anxious like you._ ”

His ear twitches.

“ _The same people who hurt me, hurt you. But never again. I’m going to protect you and make you happy._ ”

His eyes widen and it really feels like he can understand her. Obviously not the word, but the sounds she’s making sound so nice and reassuring, she hopes. She hopes he’ll let her love him. It would mean so much to her if she could.

“I told you,” Bernadetta whispers and Edelgard jumps, Bernie’s hands sliding onto her shoulders. “I told you he loves you. He’s just a little shy about it, kinda like how I was.”

Edelgard blushes so hard, she’s glad Bernadetta can’t see. “I was very shy too, if you can recall. Dorothea had to set us up.”

“Dorothea _and_ Hubert had to set me up with you, I was so scared,” Bernadetta says. 

Meanwhile, Mittens is just purring, body like jelly. He’s unbelievably soft and plushy. 

There’s a raspy shout, and of course it’s Gloves charging in for the lovefest. He headbutts Bernie’s thigh like a battering ram and falls over besides Mittens for pets.

“They’re so cute, aren’t they?” Bernadetta whispers.

“Yeah,” Edelgard smiles.

Mittens flashes her a look. Wide eyes, lips slightly open. He’s been pet for minutes on end now and he just looks so surprised about it, surprised someone would do this for him.

And man, she really understands how that feels.

She ends up crying over it. But it’s the first time she’s shed happy tears in weeks.

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**Author's Note**

Thank you for reading. : ) And as promised… pictures of my sons.

Albus (Gloves) and Alan (Mittens) are turning four years old on December 12th, 2020. Albus was left in a crate in a parking lot, and Alan was caged with feral cats as a kitty. They were adopted by a foster family and lived with 20 cats until I took them in when they were one and a half. They are both good boys and sleep with me every night. : ) 


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